Massaging the second brain This ancient healing art, at one time lost in the sands of time, gets

a new leas e of life and sees a new following with adherents in all parts of the world, tha nks to one Taoist master. Many non-Asians would perhaps raise a sceptical brow if told that the st omach is the seat of our emotions and also the second brain. Suggest to them tha t it needs to be massaged to ensure that the owner can attain the desired level of emotional equilibrium and good health, those same brows would probably start to bounce and dance along with their bewildered wide eyes. That the stomach area is the seat of our emotions is a long-held belief of the T aoists. It finds common ground with some Asian cultures in this aspect. For exam ple, the Malays literally say panas perut, kecut perut, and serabut perut which mean literally "heat in the stomach, shrinking stomach, knots in the stomach" re spectively, in describing grcat anger, fear and worry; coincidentally the last o ne, in Western worldview, also refers to having great fear or anxiety. In the Taist medical system, the small intestine besides digesting food is also tasked with digesting the emotions as well. Different contractions of this intes tine correspond to undigested emotions. That is why in TCM it is called the 'abd ominal brain'. For example, contraction on the right side, closer to the liver d enotes anger. In another Asian worldview, the Malay's specifically, panas hati a lso means angry. Worry affects the upper left side in the area of the spleen. Im patience and anxiety affect the top part of the small intestine. However, allopathic medicine takes a more pragmatic approach and does not see th e effects of what goes on in that area as having any link with the emotions and the spirit. TCM and Ayurvedic streams, on the other hand propose that negative f orces and underlying toxins once released from the body would heal most maladies . This longstanding wisdom assigning these two usual suspects as causes of our m aladies is now openly embraced by allopathic medicine. But this is not a platfor m to discuss which one has greater merit. Perhaps what Master Mantak Chia, the founder of Universal Healing Tao Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand, has to say can persuade greater acceptance of the fact tha t knots in the 'second brain' need to be unravelled through gentle and firm yet precise touches to the abdomen. "Ancient Taoists massaged their abdomen and orga ns within it to stay healthy. Humans often develop energy blockages in their int ernal organs that result in knots and tangles in their abdomens. The negative em otions of fear, anger, anxiety, depression and worry cause the most damage. Prob lems can also be caused by over-work, stress, accidents, surgery, drugs, toxins, poor food and bad posture. Negative emotions that cannot find an outlet will fe ster in the organs or move into the abdomen, the emotional garbage dump. It can process some emotional issues, but more often than not it cannot keep up with th e flow. The energetic centre of the body located at the navel becomes congested and cut off from the rest of the body." In over three decades Master Mantak Chia has trained hundreds of students and ma ny have become practitioners of the ancient healing art. They can now be found i n various parts of the world. This time-tested wisdom that began 1,000 years ago in the mountain ranges of China was used by Taoist monks to maintain their phys ical endurance, mental discipline and emotional equilibrium. It was also part of the ritual used by them to fortify the body and purify themselves as preparatio n for the spiritual work ahead, for example to undergo a period of deep meditati on and so on. Chi Nei Tsang is a deep abdominal massage technique that encourages healing from within. It literally means "working the energy of the internal organs" and uses

the principles of qi gong to bring balance back into the body and effect healin g. Chi Nei Tsang can alleviate a wide variety of maladies, both physical and emo tional. The pivotal concept of Chi Nei Tsang is that all disease-causing tension s and blockages can be traced back to the abdomen. So the deep abdominal techniq ues can be seen as an attempt to free the energy pathways of the body so healing can begin. All of our organs have self-healing abilities as does the rest of th e body when blood and qi are able to flow freely and powerfully. They also hold our deepest secrets and are the source of life and death. In life as in death, the Taoist believes that the soul must ideally be relativel y free of unnecessary struggles and encumbrances for these conditions only bring a lot of disharmony and misery. Taoist wisdom accumulated through the millennia observes that at the moment of death many knots form in the body. While death c annot be avoided, this undesirable situation can be, according to the Taoist tra dition, and ideally ought to be too as they believe at the moment of death the s oul and spirit leave the body. They exit through the navel or the crown and knot s cause waste of time and energy - the struggles and pains. Not only that, by ha ving to make that convoluted journey through the many knots, the soul and spirit will miss the light that appears at the time of death to take them.